502 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 796 



the hypothesis in the light of what he saw 

 through the microscope, but the germ theory 

 had to wait for laboratory verification at the 

 hands of Pasteur. In connection with the 

 theory of the transmission of disease by in- 

 sects it is of interest to note that Sir Henry 

 A. Blake, governor of Ceylon, has pointed out' 

 that the mosquito theory of the origin of ma- 

 laria is as ancient as the Susruta, a Sanskrit 

 medical classic at least 1,400 years old. Quite 

 an anthology might be compiled of references 

 from secular literature in which swamps, mos- 

 quitoes and malaria were vaguely associated 

 as if in causal connection before King enun- 

 ciated the theory in 1882. But no one ever 

 thought of mosquitoes in relation to yellow 

 fever before the time of Finlay and Walter 

 Eeed. 



FiELiDiNG H. Garrison 

 Abmy IVIedical Museum 



' the lower tertiaries of louisiana 

 To THE Editor of Science: In preparing 

 manuscript for publication on the lower 

 Tertiaries of Louisiana it has seemed de- 

 sirable to have a formational name for that 

 portion of the Eocene usually styled in our 

 former publications " Lower Claiborne." In 

 accordance with the wishes of the committee 

 on nomenclature the geographic name St. 

 Maurice is here proposed for these well-known 

 Mississippi embayment marine beds. 



G. D. Harris 



the length of service pensions of the 



CARNEGIE foundation 



The articles by Professors Cattell and Jas- 

 trow following that of Professor Lovejoy and 

 the Nation editorial, have put in such strong 

 light the disadvantages and the injustice of 

 the recent ruling by the Carnegie Eetiring 

 Board, that it might seem little remains to be 

 said. There can be little doubt that these 

 articles express the sentiment of a great ma- 

 jority among those who have been looking 

 forward to a service retiring allowance upon 



'Jour. Ceylon Branch Brit. Med. Assoc, Col- 

 ombo, 1905, II., 9. 



the Carnegie Foundation. Some professors 

 who have considered the system a great aid 

 in securing stronger American universities, 

 have now lost all interest in it. If a professor 

 who entered early upon teaching must con- 

 tinue for forty years as a professor in order 

 to acquire any benefits from the foundation, 

 not much inducement is offered him. 



There are, as it seems to me, two considera- 

 tions not specially emphasized in the articles 

 cited, which might well be taken up. In his 

 report recently published, the president of the 

 foundation lays stress upon the fact that the 

 professors thus far retired upon the founda- 

 tion because of age, all laid down their work 

 with regret, and in some cases felt hurt that 

 they had been induced to do so. No one 

 familiar with university men will for a mo- 

 ment doubt that these statements represent 

 the facts as regards an even larger body of the 

 older professors. Among the middle-aged and 

 young men of universities, and it might be 

 added the student body, the opinion is prob- 

 ably as general that professors generally re- 

 main at their posts after their best work of 

 teaching has passed. This opinion of the 

 younger men does not spring altogether from 

 a selfish desire to fill the positions of their 

 seniors, since their conclusion expresses a law 

 of human nature which is exemplified in every 

 walk of life, but perhaps most strikingly upon 

 the concert stage. When nowadays a young 

 man states openly that he will retire from his 

 post voluntarily before his powers have been 

 impaired by age, he is perhaps cynically re- 

 quested to set the statement down in writing; 

 for, once admitted into the group of the older 

 men, it is notorious that he acquires their 

 point of view as naturally as liberals become 

 transformed into conservatives after their ad- 

 mission to the British House of Lords. 



The question of the relative teaching efB- 

 cieney of professors at the different ages be- 

 tween forty and seventy-five years, is one to 

 be decided by results, and it would be of spe- 

 cial interest if the statistics recently gathered 

 by the Carnegie Foundation from the so- 

 called accepted institutions were compared 

 and published. If the average age of the 



